The Russian army “remains willing” to guarantee a “safe” evacuation of the civilians sheltered together with Ukrainian combatants in the tunnels of the Azovstal steel factory in Mariupol, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
“The Russian army remains ready to ensure the safe evacuation of civilians,” Putin said in a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
“Regarding the militiamen [ucranianos] who remain in Azovstal, the kyiv authorities should order them to lay down their arms,” Putin added.
The Russian army announced on Wednesday that from Thursday it would respect a three-day unilateral truce to allow the evacuation of civilians from the giant Mariupol steel complex.
But a commander of the Azov battalion, which defends the site, said that “the Russians violated their promise of a truce and do not allow the evacuation of civilians.”
A UN representative reported that a new convoy should arrive in Azovstal on Friday, “in the hope of removing the civilians who are still there, in that gloomy hell in which they have been for several weeks.”
The UN and the Red Cross evacuated a hundred civilians from the steelworks at the beginning of the week.